Samuel Johnson Pleasure Quotations

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

The lustre of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue

His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.

It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure.

Men become friends by a community of pleasures.

Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.

The great source of pleasure is variety.

The liberty of using harmless pleasure will not be disputed; but it is still to be examined what pleasures are harmless.

The friendship which is to be practised or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other.

In all pleasures hope is a considerable part.

Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.

We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.

We all live in the hope of pleasing somebody; and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and always will be greatest, when our endeavors are exerted in consequence of our duty.

Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain.

The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment.

Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly.

The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.

Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience.

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

I am a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being governed.

So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.

Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship.

The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure.

The public pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit.

Pleasure itself is not a vice